Taiwanese Lutheran Church of San Diego — Attraction in San Diego

We left the church for repeated problem happened in the Children's Sunday School.

So we have a two-years-old who goes to the Sunday School when we attend the worship service. However, what happened in the Sunday School classroom raised our great concern.

Anyone is allowed to walk into the classroom, play with kids, and feed them candy and other junk foods. We found it dangerous and talked to the principal. She told us "those are older people without grandchildren and they just love kids" and "this is God's house, you should tolerate them with love."

We found this elaboration of "God's house" bizarre. After repeated communication which took longer than half a year (!) the principal finally allow us to post a small "No candy and soda" sign on the door of the classroom. Even after that we still see church goers distribute junk food to kids without asking parents--only not in the classroom.

Another problem was about the TV usage. One day the lead teacher was away, and when we picked our child up at the nursery, we saw the babies and toddlers (0-3 years old) were sitting on the floor and watching TV while the substitute teacher and some church goers chatting behind the classroom. We asked the teacher how long they've been watching TV like this, she told us "about 15 minutes" and "that's because kids were crying" and "we just want to distract them."

We saw such an instance happened in the nursery for many times when the lead teacher was away. We brought it to the principal's attention. To our surprise, she claims, "we and many parents believe that some video is good for kids." The problem is, when we first bring our kids to the Sunday School, the lead teacher told us "the DVD player will be used only for music to limit the exposure of children to television."

Not only the principal 's claim conflicted our previous discussion, but also against our believing. I'm a seasoned parenting and education columnist. To my best knowledge, the damage that TV does to young brain has been overwhelmingly supported by scientific evidence. It's hard for us to imagine if anyone would conclude otherwise.

The principal refused to work on this problem with us, but kept saying "this is God's house and you should tolerate the volunteers with love."

Once again, we found this elaboration of "God's Home" bizarre. We decided to take our child away from the church to avoid further damage to...

I've been attending Taiwanese Lutheran Church since 2008 and have met many great people here. However, I left in 2019 due to an altercation I had with two higher ups on a mission trip. I am sad to say that the church has certainly dipped in quality over the years due to their constant struggle of trying to find a pastor that suits their bureaucracy. TLC definitely has a problem with certain people who want control over others and the whole church's agenda. One issue I have observed over the last 3-4 years is how the Youth Group, (who constantly takes care of the church and has helped them grow tremendously) has been downgraded to an office space, and has almost no say in anything that is decided upon by the elders. I constantly pray that TLC can overcome their current troubles and return to a better state, but until now I cannot recommend this toxic environment to anyone. Church and politics cannot ever...

We were with this church for two years, but eventually left for repeated disturbing incidence in the Children's Sunday School. Young children (0-3 years old) spent too much time in front of TV, and any church goers were allowed to enter the classroom, play with kids and feed them junk food. We found the policy dangerous. When trying to communicate with the principal, she told us "a little TV/candy wouldn't hurt kids" and "this is God's house and you should tolerate them with love." We feel this is not the right church home for us or any parents who wish their children to have a healthy Sunday School...